Thread regarding Intel Corp. layoffs

@ch I am going to go into a bit more detail, because I honestly think you don't know what you are talking about. I truncated the events a bit. But here is the complete straight dope. Back in the day, when Apple was basically the smart phone king, and Samsung was working on being number 2, before they were number one the following happened.

D1C was tasked with producing Intel's smart phone chip. Two manufactures agreed to go work Intel and manufacture these phones. D1C produced these chips in volume for the first run, these chip were late, because management kept taking them offline due to production issues in other fab . About 200 of these phones then came back to D1C and were issued for use in the Fab, they were unbranded but rumor was Asus made them, for test purposes. I was one of the lucky Techs who got one, it was a really nice phone. I could surf all day, watch videos, text, make phone calls etc on one charge. The remaining phones were sold on the market, and I believe the retail cost was either $299 or $399. But its been a while.

For the second run, it was communicated fab wide that these lots were our number one priority, they had to be out of the Fab no later then September 1st. This was Intel's make or break moment as we understood it for the Cell Phone Market. We met the commit and the second version of the chips shipped on time.

For the final production run, there were issues namely again another fab had production issues delayed the wafers getting thru the fab. Intel management believed they could delay the delivery because the cell phone chips sold for maybe a couple of bucks and those PC chips needed for the holidays sold for thousands. Needles to say, we missed the commit. Our sole manufacture at this point, told Intel to pack sand and we missed our shot. It was not an issue with x86 everywhere. I used one of these phones, and it was a fantastic product for the price point. Intel failed because management did not understand that a cellphone company, whoever they are, has a tight schedule to get their product to market. Intel refused to meet it's commitments. This cost the company that business.

Now yes Steve Jobs came to Paul Otellini and asked if Intel would manufacture an Arm chip for the iPhone. Paul turned him down, because the board did not have the vision to risk producing a possible competitor to Intel's x86 chip. The rumors we heard in the Fab was that after this miss, the board choose to ignore Paul's s-xual escapades, then paid him an even bigger severance so he would not bad mouth the company and hurt the stock price.

@cf ... 10 or 11 foups worth of material didn't change Intel's direction. It was a huge waste but it was ignorance and arrogance that drove Intel into the ground. I really enjoyed working here in the early 2000s but the decisions around cell phone really made it clear that this company didn't have a clue when it came to measuring consumer sentiment and the market. Intel's point of view was we are smarter than everyone else so listen to us. Wow, did they get that wrong. At the end of the day I am a boomer who made a lot of money working at Intel and I have a enough to support my life. I didn't do anything wrong to other people it just worked out this way for me. Boomer were able to exploit a blip in history and now things has settled down and gone back to a historical norm. The millennials and GenZ will bear this burden. Not my plan or intention, just happened.

@bx ... nope

Intel is smarter than every one else. Shut-up and listen to us... Been happening since the 1990s. The competition never bought it and now Intel will fade into oblivion and billions of people are happy about it.

@bx Intel missed mobile phones not because of x86, but because they choose to miss chip commits to cellphone companies. I used to work in D1C and we had what looked to be a competitive product in the line. Santa Clara and D1C took the lots offline to prioritize PC chips because another fab had an issue. When they contacted the cellphone company to inform them we would not make the product commit on time, the cellphone company basically said f-off, we will buy from someone else.

I and several other techs spent a couple of shifts scrapping all the wafers. I seem to recall it was 10 or 11 Foups worth of material.

Missed Mobile poisoned by x86 centric thinking

Missed Foundry opportunity when they had two generation lead and cash flow to expand but leadership blinded by x86 cash cow and arrogance they were the best.

Missed AI and GPU, again x86 centric and arrogance.

I see a trend, has it changed ?

Layoffs and firing will continue until either Intel goes bankrupt or it's chopped into pieces and sold off.

Happenned 15 years ago

Now: The old timers will somehow save their jobs. Hasn’t changed under Lipbu.
Most ELT and CVP are the same old timers who got us in this mess. Garbage in Garbage out. Chopping block for a dying company.